Captain Sam Masters helps display the new Monarchs Banner – photo courtesy of Ron MacNeill
A large turnout of Monarchs fans helped unveil two massive banners at Armadale tonight. These were donated by a Monarchs fan and the Trust hopes that this will add colour and a little extra atmosphere to the build up of Monarchs fixtures. On a cold and gloomy March evening it was fantastic to see so many people there to support this venture and we thank you all for coming along. We were also very pleased to be joined by Monarchs team captain Sam Masters who is acclimatising back to the Scottish weather ahead of the new season.
Home banner – photo courtesy of Ron MacNeill
The intention is that the home banner will be displayed during the parade at Armadale although it is also capable and sturdy enough to be set as a permanent fixture within the stadium. With Fans Trust chairman Scott Somerville conducting this was moved along the 3rd and 4th bend tonight as we got an idea of what it might look like on the 1st April when the Belle Vue Aces are in town.
Both banners have the same design with 5 stars representing the 5 league championship wins. The 2nd banner whilst just as large is a lot more lightweight and flexible enough to be folded into a normal sized back pack. This will enable us to carry it up and down the country to away meetings and make sure the presence of our fans is felt and the home team know the mighty Monarchs are in town. Away wins are what separates the good teams from the rest these days and we hope this will spur the boys on to great things in 2016. A point demonstrated on the night by Scunthorpe who recorded the first away win of the Premier League season in the first match. All things going to plan the Away Banner should make it’s debut at a track not to far from you soon as well.
Away banner – photo courtesy of Ron MacNeill
We would like to emphasize our thanks again to everyone who turned up to support the event and give special thanks to Ron MacNeill for coming along to take photographs and to Sam for making an appearance too.
Unfortunately there wasn’t a huge amount else to see on the night as fog made visibility poor across the stadium from the start; it only got worse as the night went on which inevitably led to the abandonment of the greyhound racing after the 7th race. We would like to thank Billy Cochrane and all his team at Armadale Stadium for allowing us to use the facilities again, facilities they continue to make gradual improvements to.
Next time we are at Armadale there will be the familiar smells and sounds of speedway bikes in the air and it is now only 7 days away! As the banner says this club has been going (with a couple of gaps) since 1948 and the Trust will continue to work hard to try to improve all aspects of Monarchs speedway as we strive to make sure the club lasts another 70 years and beyond.
